video
Bamboo Whip Coral
Bamboo whip corals can grow to be multiple meters long. During Dive 05 of the 2026 American Samoa ROV + Mapping Exploration expedition, the team encountered many of these impressive corals, with one extending more than 5 meters (16.4 feet) into the water column! Bamboo corals are octocorals, meaning that each coral polyp has eight tentacles used for capturing food. These corals grow very slowly, only a fraction of a millimeter to a centimeter each year—this means that a coral that is 5 meters tall is likely hundreds of years old!